No....that's what happens when you spend about 30 hours recording and mixing. Ear and brain fatigue.
You guys are absolutely right. I listened again today. It sounds awful. I can hear distortion and ass all over it. Honest..it sounded marvelous...but I had a major case of dead ears.
I also spent a good chunk of today A/Bing all four masters against "That Thing You Do" sound track...real close to what I was aiming for. No contest. So I tried two more masters after thinning and brightening the vox, spread the kit...and panned everything a bit more outside, and putting the slap back into the snare and kick. But I discovered a real bug in the construction...no matter how good the sound: that 'mono' thing...the vox, kit and bass, which are the only feature during whole chunks of verses, are all near center. The L&R instruments kick in later...and then, not enough.
So I'm gonna re-write the guitars to function through the whole tune, re-sing it, an try recording those tracks in a brighter, more ambient space.
I major embarassed m'self. And I apologize about any 'tone' you perceived in my words...none intended. I thought I'd stumbled onto something really great.
D'OH!
ps...Greg My environment is pretty good. Worked on it for a long time to improve the room with bass traps and a lot of the other recommendations in that article available here. Pro CD's sound great. No hot spots in the command chair. Then I spent, and still spend, a lot of time referencing real CD's...like today. Gimme another year. And some sleep. Arf.